Farming Footnotes

February 7, 2013

The late Dr. Norman Borlaug, a famous plant scientist, once said, “If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace.” He was referring to the fact that when people are hungry, they are also angry and usually do not want to listen until that sense of hunger is satisfied.

Right here in northeastern Ohio, there are some folks that often do not know where there next meal is coming from. There are a number of groups, churches and organizations, as well as government programs that do an excellent job of helping to reduce or eliminate that uncertainty for the next meal.

At the same time, there is an outstanding group of family farms in the local area that produce a share of the food that the community needs. These family farmers are on farms large and small and do a good job of growing their crops and sending quality milk, meat and eggs to market.

In fact, it is the larger family farms, those of 400 to 500 acres and more, that produce the major amount of food off local farms. That is true across the nation.

Ashtabula County, for example is a county of small farms with the average of about 150 acres. Each one of these farms is important, but a large number of them are part-time or hobby farms. Yes, they contribute to the economy of the area, but the larger farms are where the impact can be seen.

Local family farms do not get the visibility and credit they deserve. They are good managers, careful stewards of the soil and their livestock and the environment.

Some groups keep trying to take issue with accepted, scientific practices used on many of the larger family farms. They do not understand the time, effort, energy and study these farmers put into the practices used on most farms today.

Environmental groups, animal rights activists or radicals and many government regulations tend to throw roadblocks in the way of farmers as they go about doing a good job. Examples of environmental groups filing unjustified lawsuits against farms for what they say are violations of the Clean Water Act can cause farmers to spend thousands of dollars defending themselves.

One example was out in Maryland where a poultry farmer had to spend $100,000 to defend himself against a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups. The courts ruled that the farm had not done anything wrong and were not in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Down in West Virginia a similar case was noted when the EPA threatened to fine a farm family $37,500 a day for failing to get a Clean Water Act discharge permit for storm water runoff from the farm.

Only after the American Farm Bureau (AFBF) and the West Virginia Farm Bureau got involved, which EPA strongly opposed, did the EPA decide to withdraw its order. It appeared, according to AFBF, that EPA did not want to defend its position in court.

What is concerning is that EPA has not backed away from its position that any amount of pollution on the ground requires a Clean Water Act permit.

What is really of concern about all this harassment of farmers is the potential impact on the food supply. The public keeps hearing that it will need 50 percent more food by 2040 or 2050, yet farmers are faced with a number of roadblocks that make their job much more difficult.

Americans have the ability and technology to produce the food needed in this world if common sense prevails and farmers are allowed to farm using the best management practices and technology that is available.

Parker is retired from The Ohio State University and an independent agricultural writer.